Turn sustain to slow release

[paul]

Hello!

In most commercial string sounds there is a feature I really like, which is: the sustain pedal, instead of actually sustaining, simply extends the release time (while of course keeping the key pressed actually sustains).
Is there a control to do that in Zyn, or any other linux synth?

I can get around it with some Carla controls, but maybe there is already such a feature implemented..

Thanks!

*EDIT* Apparently Carla controls do not see the release time of zyn...so...howto?

[ssj71]

maybe not with zyn, but anything that has a midi mapping, just map the sustain pedal to the release knob. You might need to use mididings to remap the sustain midi CC values but I'm quite confident it will work. I think that will be the most convenient, since the only alternative I can think of is to add that feature in the source code.

[tatch]

zyn standalone purportedly has midi learn builtin so that could be even easier than using it with carla

[fundamental]

This sounds like a good feature to add, though I'm not sure how exactly it should coexist with arbitrary envelopes (ie the freemode ones).
If some exact semantics for how sustain should alter already in progress envelopes and how the user should specify the sustained vs unsustained envelopes in the UI, then I'd be very interested in implementing this.

[paul]

If some exact semantics for how sustain should alter already in progress envelopes and how the user should specify the sustained vs unsustained envelopes in the UI, then I'd be very interested in implementing this.

My Yamaha electric piano string sound does the following (A=attack time, D=decay time, S=sustain value, R=release time):
- keeping the note key pressed sustains the note (with value S), both with and without pedal
- If a note is released while the sustain pedal is *not* active, there is no sustain anymore, and the release time will be R
- If a note is released while the sustain pedal is active, there is *again* no sustain anymore, and the release time will be larger than R (how much larger can be user defined). This affects only notes which are *released* while the pedal is active, and it only affects R.
- The pedal does not change A,D,S. It only changes R for all the notes whose NOTEOFF signal happens while pedal is active (in particular, NOTEON is not relevant). The NOTEOFF signal still makes the note end, there is no real sustain with the pedal!
- Moreover, if the pedal is released *during* the release time of the sound, the instrument goes on with the "remaining" part of the release with speed R (not larger).
(But the viceversa is not true: if the pedal is pressed during the release time of the sound, the release time is not increased, the note is "already gone".)

This should be enough to start, as an idea... I hope it is clear.

though I'm not sure how exactly it should coexist with arbitrary envelopes (ie the freemode ones)

This would get complicated indeed. But maybe there can be a way of telling which segment(s) should get stretched by the pedal (e.g. for each segment, an additional knob/control for "sensitivity to sustain pedal").

[ssj71]

maybe not worth much, but here's my thought: a knob called "sus. pedal release time" or something that goes logarithmically scaled from 100% to inf. If 100% sus pedal has no effect, at 200% r time doubles when pedal is held, if inf pedal holds at the current value in the envelope indefinitely (excepting AD). Default would be inf.